$450 Gaming PC... will it run Oblivion?

[Boden]

AMD Sempron 2800+
Biostar TForce 6100 Motherboard
1 Gb G.Skill Ram
SAPPHIRE Radeon X800GTO2 (16 pipelines already unlocked)
Maxtor Diamondmax plus 10 80g HD
Cheap DVD burner

All that plus a case and power supply came to just over $450. I plan on assembling and OCing it today.

Any bets on if it will run Oblivion? And on what settings?

I am gunning for a decent framerate (20-30) on medium settings.

 

[Shifty52]

With Low graphics settings, you may be lucky and get 10FPS. but if more than 2 things are moving on the screen... Good luck.

 

[bluntside]

If you can insnaley oc you cpu, not to mention the gpu, along with sufficient colling, then yes it might be possible w/ normal settings. Dont expect it to look like the pretty pics on magazine reviews, cuz your system isn't that fast. But it never hurts to try :twisted:
______________________________________________
Dfi Lan Party Nf4 Ut SLI-DR eXpert
Amd +3700
1gb Kingston hyper X
Ati X1900XTX
2x 150 bg WD Raptor X

 

[shabodah]

Don't let these guys fool you. If you are willing to deal with either 1024X768 or 800X600 without extra eye candy, You'll do fine. However, I am familiar with that type of system setup and can assue you that OC'ing the 2800 to 2.0 ghz will be beneficial, and best, usually quite easy. I have a 754 athlon 3000 venice (yes, venice) with a 7600 GS (yes, GS), and at stock settings WITH HDR on, the game is PLAYABLE. Not a great framerate, and yes, slowdown like everyone else in the forest, but PLAYABLE. Mind you, the system is even happier when ran at a 250 FSB for DDR500 and 2.5ghz, 7600GS will take a 25% OC without a problem as well. Don't listen to the hype, most systems are overkill for playing a game at medium settings. Just keep the junk from running in the background (too many apps will kill any system).

 

[bweir]

It might run on very low settings, 800x600, with nothing turned on, but even that's pushing it. That system isn't suited for playing the most recent games at average resolution. And if you are getting <10 FPS, that really isn't "running" at all, its a slideshow.

 

[NumenorLord]

Hmmm, $450. Maybe some of you can tell me how well my system will run Oblivion:

P4 630 @ 3 GHz
1 GB DDR2-533 memory
256 mb GeForce 6800 (PCI-e)
SB Audigy 2 ZS

 

[Boden]

Got an update for you all.

The comp. is assembled and running. Woot first try! XP is just about finished with its mumbo jumbo and I am going to start the OCing.

A sidenote: All the parts I purchased are well known for their OCing at stock cooling. I am expecting a 20-30% improvement all around, possibly more.

 

[MadModMike]

With Low graphics settings, you may be lucky and get 10FPS. but if more than 2 things are moving on the screen... Good luck.

Not to insult you or others, but you're all dearly wrong. I happen to have 2 of those Sapphire x800GTO2's w/ the Pipes Unlocked, and they can play Oblivion on Medium @ 1024x768 w/ 30-40 frames constant, and 1 of them has Value RAM and it still plays fine. All x800 cards and 6800GT and better can play any new game out today and even some of tomorrow @ medium settings just fine. Hell, my x1900XTX w/ Ultra-Max Settings only gets 30fps average, and that's w/ a Opty 165 OC'd to FX-60, Oblivion is a very demanding game, yes, but it doesn't have to be.

~~Mad Mod Mike, pimpin' the world 1 rig at a time

 

[sandmannight]

you may not have a pretty image but I think it will be playable

 

[angry_ducky]

you may not have a pretty image but I think it will be playable

Agreed

 

[shabodah]

very similiar to system that started this thread. Dollar for Dollar the RAM would be best to upgrade first 2GB is nice to smooth everything out.

 

[Boden]

OK folks final update before I install Oblivion and try it out.

OCing results.

CPU: Initial - 1.6ghz. OC - Stable at 2.3ghz... talk about a massive improvement, I was not expecting it to go over 2.0ghz. This is still on stock cooling, all I did was use the built in OC Tool on the Biostar board.

RAM: Got it going at 270mhz, not going to mess with the timings right now.

GPU: 520/600 on the stock cooling. It is running pretty hot though. 46c on idle... I am going to guess over 60c full load. Looks like I will be wanting a Zalman fan for this so that will push the total cost up a bit.

For those that don't know 520/600 is right around X850 XT PE performance.

The OCing went much better than I expected. Some aspects improved over 30%!! I am installing Oblivion now... taking forever

I will let you all know how it runs before and after I mess with settings on medium and high. Going to take a while though, I want to get outside the prison before I even start testing.

 

[Avadann_Kedeth]

Actually, you should run it fairly well provided a clean installation and well running system.

I play Oblivion on an AthlonXP 2600+ Thoroughbred
1GB DDR400 DC
GeForce 6600GT 128MB AGP
WD 80GB SATA HDD

I play with medium settings, 1024x768 'large' textures, HDR, and several texture mods (that increase detail) and get a steady 20-30 FPS in most areas, and never below 10. Nothing I have is overclocked.

 

[angry_ducky]

OK folks final update before I install Oblivion and try it out.

OCing results.

CPU: Initial - 1.6ghz. OC - Stable at 2.3ghz... talk about a massive improvement, I was not expecting it to go over 2.0ghz. This is still on stock cooling, all I did was use the built in OC Tool on the Biostar board.

RAM: Got it going at 270mhz, not going to mess with the timings right now.

GPU: 520/600 on the stock cooling. It is running pretty hot though. 46c on idle... I am going to guess over 60c full load. Looks like I will be wanting a Zalman fan for this so that will push the total cost up a bit.

For those that don't know 520/600 is right around X850 XT PE performance.

The OCing went much better than I expected. Some aspects improved over 30%!! I am installing Oblivion now... taking forever

I will let you all know how it runs before and after I mess with settings on medium and high. Going to take a while though, I want to get outside the prison before I even start testing.

Post some benchmarks? 3DMark? SuperPi?

 

[Boden]

I don't have 3DMark, etc. on the computer yet.

Starting from scratch is a pain for specifics, I will get to all that after I finish up the main goal.

 

[angry_ducky]

I don't have 3DMark, etc. on the computer yet.

Starting from scratch is a pain for specifics, I will get to all that after I finish up the main goal.

I'd know; with all the problems I've had with my PC in the past few months, I've formatted the drive 3 times and reinstalled windows; total fuck!n pain in the @$$.

 

[ikaz]

You know not to be rude but I swear I see people claiming you need the best video/CPU/ram to play new the newest games and thats just not true.I'm able to play Oblivion with my old ass rig which is a old 2100Xp AMD running at 1.7ghz, 1 gig of pc2700 (not even running in duel channel mode cause it 512, 256,256), and a x850pro card (still running on 12 pipes just been to lazy up flash it but I am running it at PE mem and clock speeds per ATI tool I could go higher but meh).

When I installed it and it did its auto detect it set evey thing to meduim and high type settings for the rez of 1048x768. Now of course I'm not running AA or anything but the game sure look damn good. I realy haven't had the chance to fraps it and and I do get some slow down out side (which seems to be a "normal") compaired to inside but it very very playable.

As far as your frame rate setting your aiming for should be able to hit that with out a problem (in 10x7 rez).

 

[angry_ducky]

You know not to be rude but I swear I see people claiming you need the best video/CPU/ram to play new the newest games and thats just not true.I'm able to play Oblivion with my old ass rig which is a old 2100Xp AMD running at 1.7ghz, 1 gig of pc2700 (not even running in duel channel mode cause it 512, 256,256), and a x850pro card (still running on 12 pipes just been to lazy up flash it but I am running it at PE mem and clock speeds per ATI tool I could go higher but meh).

When I installed it and it did its auto detect it set evey thing to meduim and high type settings for the rez of 1048x768. Now of course I'm not running AA or anything but the game sure look damn good. I realy haven't had the chance to fraps it and and I do get some slow down out side (which seems to be a "normal") compaired to inside but it very very playable.

As far as your frame rate setting your aiming for should be able to hit that with out a problem (in 10x7 rez).

Your CPU is totally bottlenecking your graphics card, but if it works for you, that's fine.

 

[sandmannight]

it is true most people exagerate the typed of computer you need

 

[shabodah]

Good Job with the OC'ing. I had my 2800 stable at 2.2 ghz before I sold it, but that was on the AsRock 6100/410 board, and voltage was holding it back. Bought time to we see people back up the fact that you DON'T need the lastest and greatest. Don't get me wrong, though, I would not even attempt to run anything at 1600X1200 on my system. Again, Nice Job.

 

[ivoryjohn]

But it looks so much better on an x1800+ with dual core processor.

(The installer calls it ULTRA).

8)

Make sure all you guys go to tweakguides.com so you can patch your ini file to get more fps, especially if you have dual core or HT.

 

[Boden]

Ok I made it out of the prison and fast travelled to the imperial city market district. I am in a decently crowded area, got a couple folks walking by me. Nothing major going on.

And the results *drum roll*:

1280x1024 High settings, unmodified - 8-12 fps OUCH! (I just took the highest and lowest I saw in a 1 minute interval)
1024x768 Medium Settings, unmodified - 27-34 fps hooray!

Now I turn off most of the effects, lower some of the texture settings, etc.

1280x1024 - 22-32fps
1024x768 - 37-45fps

Well nothing spectacular, but not to shabby. With some more overclocking work, and more settings adjustment I could def. push that a bit more.

Interesting side note: I have never workewd with semprons before so I don't know if this is normal, but every 5 minutes or so the game seems to have a minor hiccup. FPS drops to like 5 for 2 or 3 seconds.

Also, Alt+tabbing out of Oblivion takes around 20 seconds on this rig... yikes.


Now I will work on some benchmarks to finish this test up.

Edit* FPS for modified 1280x1024 were wrong, I corrected them.

 

[Boden]

Ok some quick benchmark results because I have some other things I wanted to get to today

3DMark 05 no AA/AF - 7093
3DMark 06 no AA/AF - 1681

Not to bad I guess.

 

[angry_ducky]

That's very nice for a cheapie system.

 

[angry_ducky]

Ok some quick benchmark results because I have some other things I wanted to get to today

3DMark 05 no AA/AF - 7093
3DMark 06 no AA/AF - 1681

Not to bad I guess.

Your 3DMark 05 score is a very good score, especially for that equipment, and the 06 score is low because your graphics card can't run the sm 3.0 tests.